Nigerians carried out $274.6 billion worth of e-payments in the first 4 months of 2022

This is according to latest figures released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems, whose online inter-bank payment solution (NIBSS Instant Payments, NIP) facilitated the transactions.

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The report, which was seen by Business Insider Africa, detailed the values of monthly transactions thus:

January: In January, the NIBSS's instant payments portal recorded N26.6 trillion ($62.6 billion) worth of transaction value.
February: The transaction value rose to N27.2 trillion ($65 billion) in February.
March: The month of March saw the total transaction value climbing further to N31.8 trillion ($74.6 billion).
April: By April, the total transaction value dropped slightly to N29.2 trillion ($69.9 billion).

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The total electronic transaction value during the four months represents a 44% increase when compared to N79.5 trillion ($190.3 billion) which was recorded during the comparable period in 2021.

Apparently, the increase in transaction value during the first 4 months of 2022 was a reflection of the increase in transaction volume. In specific terms, the transaction volume during the review period was 1.4 billion, as against 999 million during the first four months of 2021.

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This is clearly shows that Nigerians are increasingly adopting electronic payment as their most preferred payment method. The increasing adoption is influenced by the evolution of eCommerce in the country, even as most banks have doubled down on their digitisation efforts since the pandemic.

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According to Statista, payments via cards currently account for as much as 35% of all transactions in the country; more than cash payments and other forms of payments. The percentage is expected to increase further, as eCommerce continues to become more popular among Nigerians.